Usually, yoga helped him forget about all his troubles, but today he struggled to keep things boxed up in his brain.
Aside from his unwelcome thoughts about Tobias,his brother, Shawn, had been texting him about getting together again to catch up. They were meeting at Hero’s later to watch the Inferno game, but he was too distracted to think about that at the moment.
Maybe if he gave everyone a new challenging pose to focus on, it would help distract him too.
Chase directed them into a downward dog pose, making them hop forward so they could flow into a forward fold.
“Keep breathing, steady and even. We’re going to try an advanced move that’s not always easy to get on the first try, but the more we do it, the more comfortable you’ll feel. Roll up, vertebrae by vertebrae. I’m going to demonstrate this for you first, since once you get into the position, it will be hard to watch me at the same time. Everyone, move your ab mats so they are directly in front of you, maybe a foot in front of your feet, square to your body. This is called crane pose.”
They all watched as he moved into a forward fold, slowly bending his knees and then his arms, standing on his toes until all of his weight balanced on his hands and his knees were resting on the backs of his arms.
Keeping his core engaged, Chase continued his instruction.
“You’re going to use your core to hold this pose. Engage your muscles and make sure you keep breathing. If you think you’re going to fall,” he paused and startedto lean forward until his head made contact with an ab mat—little arched cushions they usually used for back support when doing sit-ups—“you’re safe to fall forward thanks to the mat. And if you start to fall backward, you’ll land on your toes.”
He leaned onto his toes and rose into a forward fold, rolling up slowly until he was back to standing.
Everyone in the gym gaped at him.
“Are you guys ready to try it?” Chase asked.
Josh shouted yes while the rest of them murmured in agreement, and Chase led them in the sequence.
The ab mats were the perfect accessory for the pose, since it gave everyone a safe place to fall if they needed to.
Chase walked around the room, offering encouragement and tips. Tobias nailed it, of course, but Chase did his best not to give him any extra attention.
After Chase directed them from a forward fold to standing, everyone had proud grins. They all did better than they thought they would, making Chase proud.
Once they were finished, he congratulated everyone on their progress. It was amazing seeing how far they’d all come in such a short amount of time.
“How long does it take to get as good as you?” Hunter asked. He’d been the most leery about starting yoga, mostly because of his Thor-like muscles. They’d held him back at first, but he got more limber and confidentwith every session.
“I’ve been practicing yoga since college, but I also work at Cherrywood Boulders, the rock climbing gym, and that uses a lot of bodyweight strength, too.”
“What’s the craziest move you can do?” Josh asked excitedly.
Chase wondered which pose would impress Tobias the most, and his cheeks heated as he considered how he shouldn’t be thinking that way. To hell with it, though. If he wanted to impress Tobias, there was one surefire way to do it.
“Uh, well, not a yoga pose, but the most impressive one is probably ‘human flag.’”
“So you wave at us? I can do that,” Riley joked, waving like royalty at Chase, and the others chuckled.
“Not exactly,” Chase said as he strode over to the weight rack stretching against the wall. He grabbed onto one of the poles and lifted himself until his body hung sideways, completely parallel to the ground, like a human flag.
“Holy shit, how’d you do that?” Cole yelled.
Chase chuckled as he lowered himself to the ground. A bunch of them raced over to the poles to try, but none of them could manage it, although Carson got about halfway.
“Well, I, uh, used to take a pole dance class for a bit and picked up some things,” Chase said as he rubbed theback of his neck nervously.
He’d participated in just about every fitness class in existence at this point, but pole dancing usually gained the most attention.
Cole spun in Tobias’ direction. “Please, please, please, can we have a pole dancing class next?”
Chase expected Tobias to say something dismissive in response to Cole, like usual, but Tobias was frozen in place and staring, his jaw dropped.
After a moment, Tobias noticed everyone staring at him and shook himself. “Uh, no I don’t think so. Maybe. No.”
